Cooperative Play

[turnpike]

Could any one point me to guidelines for cooperative play? I've tried to search but not found anything. I'm just looking for advice and suggestions as to how to enjoy multiplayer when you aren't against one another. We tried it yesterday and it felt like it was single player without the satisfaction of finishing ai off yourself.

Thanks
turnpike

[Gandalf Parker]

Its hard to find the mods, maps, guides, etc for things like solo play, AI improvements, team play, servers supporting those, etc. It gives the opinion that no such things exist. A sticky for such things in the Dominions 3 forum, not the MP forum, would by nice (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION before the sparks fly)

But back to your question:
Some things that come to mind are..

Some of the "weak" nations are particularly good for ally play. Ones that are often tossed out of consideration for head-to-head play. Certain magical paths, god builds, built-in abilities such as seduction and stealth and flight, can be very helpful to an ally who can provide defense for the group.

Some tricks have been laid out in some threads that are specific to ally play. What strategies for dominions scales, and global enchantments, can aid allies or should strongly be avoided because they damage allies. How to give specialists such as mages or fortune tellers or healers to your allies. How to setup a province with a castle to be a "turnstyle" province to allow your allies army to move through your territory without leaving it totally undefended.

Also online "whiteboards" can be fun. Where you can upload the map image then all of you can draw on it to lay out strategies and plans like the big planning boards in war rooms in the movies. :)

[rdonj]

1) Try a map with pre-set starts that cause you to start next to each other, so you have the ability to protect one another.
2) Use map commands to make all the AIs consider each other as allies, so it's your group vs the AI.
3) Try to choose nations and pretenders that can cover each other's weaknesses. You can trade gems, money, and items back and forth as needed, which can make you much more powerful than you would normally be.
4) If this makes it too easy for you, try giving the AI boosts to make it more powerful.

[Septimius Severus]

Stealth troops work particularly good in cooperative play (need to be a bit careful about patrolling though), allowing you to move through friendly territory and so forth. I agree with the above poster regarding paucity of information and help on cooperative play. Communication outside of the game via PM's, e-mail, forums, whiteboards, and so forth really goes along way in giving you that team feeling so that you don't feel like your alone. The in-game messaging and trading system facilitates team play somewhat as well.

[Trumanator]

If you're looking for ways to communicate better and faster, the IRC channel is excellent if you and your partners are relatively close time zones.

[Gandalf Parker]

True. There is also a CHAT here (part of this forum you can use thru your browser). Both will allow creating private rooms for games.

[Trumanator]

Also true. I don't know that I've ever seen more than 2 people maybe in the shrapnel chat, so you'll probably have privacy too. If you're looking for advice there are a bunch of people on IRC that can help you.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well there are good reasons for that.
But as I said, both actually do allow creating private rooms so it wouldnt matter which to use for that. IRC is better for help, or the chat here probably easier since you can just use your browser.

[Ink]

Its hard to find the mods, maps, guides, etc for things like solo play, AI improvements, team play, servers supporting those, etc. It gives the opinion that no such things exist. A sticky for such things in the Dominions 3 forum, not the MP forum, would by nice (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION before the sparks fly)

de gustibus non est disputandum

[Gandalf Parker]

Its hard to find the mods, maps, guides, etc for things like solo play, AI improvements, team play, servers supporting those, etc. It gives the opinion that no such things exist. A sticky for such things in the Dominions 3 forum, not the MP forum, would by nice (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION before the sparks fly)

de gustibus non est disputandum
lupus in fabula

[Ink]

Its hard to find the mods, maps, guides, etc for things like solo play, AI improvements, team play, servers supporting those, etc. It gives the opinion that no such things exist. A sticky for such things in the Dominions 3 forum, not the MP forum, would by nice (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION before the sparks fly)

de gustibus non est disputandum
lupus in fabula

qui me amat, amat et canem meam

[Lingchih]

I generally prefer IRC. The chat here kind of sucks, hence, the reason no one uses it.

IRC clients are generally free, after all, though I did pay for mine.

[Sombre]

The only real reason to use IRC is that that's what people use. Pretty simple.

[Gandalf Parker]

And the notice that pops up when you enter the chat on this forum.
Thats been brought up by some which is reasonable.

[Sombre]

I doubt it's been brought up by anyone, since no-one but you goes in there.

[Arralen]

This forum has a chat room?!?!?

And yes, cooperative play without mods/special maps etc. is somewhat lacking ...

[Gregstrom]

This forum has a chat room?!?!?



It's more of a Zen garden really - somewhere you can go to meditate in silence...


Click 'Chat' on the black menu bar part of the forum interface and you'll get there.

[Gandalf Parker]

I doubt it's been brought up by anyone, since no-one but you goes in there.
I dont think Ive been much in there since dropping moderator. I just recently popped in to see if it was still there (and surprised to find someone there). Ive done much more IRC since forum CHAT for quite awhile now.

[Ink]

I doubt it's been brought up by anyone, since no-one but you goes in there.
I dont think Ive been much in there since dropping moderator. I just recently popped in to see if it was still there (and surprised to find someone there). Ive done much more IRC since forum CHAT for quite awhile now.

:shock:

[BigDaddy]

When I was in there to check it out there were 2 people in there! (if you include me!) No one said anything, and I left the computer for a bit, so its possible someone else (or maybe 100 elves) went in there while I was in there. So, it's possible there were 102 in there while I was there, as far as I know.

[Gandalf Parker]

No they are right. Its pretty dead. Surprising since almost all of Shrapnels games include some form of multiplay and/or pbem. I thought it would do better than it apparently has. IRC may be abit ore involved to get into but the people in those channels make it worthwhile.

[Maerlande]

Actually, and I'm surprised Gandalf didn't mention it, but his Chaos games on his server can be fun. Crazy amounts of strange independents and then you don't have to fart around setting up a host.

[turnpike]

Thanks all! I should've said I'm mainly looking at how to go about playing co-op at home on LAN. The idea of joined up strategies for less commonly chosen forces is good.

When we tried playing 2p co-op lan we found unfortunately, that without fighting each other, it might as well have been a 1p game.

[Gandalf Parker]

Was it lack of ways to coop?
Or lack of challenge?

[BigDaddy]

Play on a larger map with the opponents on impossible/aggressive. Don't put too many in, they get tougher that way, it seems. You can set up the opponents countries, which works pretty good. There might be some apps available that help you set up the opposing AIs, give them good scales and lots of magic with an awake SC a with some nice equipment would be great.

I think this is what Gandalf is trying to accomplish for the community, and you can play 2 vs AI on llama server. It's not a home LAN, but if you can connect you should be good to go.

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually, and I'm surprised Gandalf didn't mention it, but his Chaos games on his server can be fun. Crazy amounts of strange independents and then you don't have to fart around setting up a host.
Yes there are a number of game types on Dom3Minions that can be played solo giving some additional items that are difficult to do for yourself.
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostedGames.htm